I have also sent one or more notes to the Department remarking briefly upon
the course of justice where foreigners are not concerned. My object has been
to present to the government an accurate disclosure of the situation, so
that there may not exist any wrong ideas as to the difficulties which
foreign representatives met with in defending the interests of their
countrymen, to indicate how unwise it would be to give up the exterritorial
system, and to point the way to reforms which ought to be secured, if
possible.
As a commentary upon what I have thus written, I beg leave to transmit to you
now a translation of a joint memorial addressed to the Throne by the acting
governor-general of Fuhkien and Chekiang provinces, and the governor of the
former province, in which the vicious routine and results of the judicial
administration in Fuhkien are portrayed in plain terms.
The effort to bring about a better condition of things in the district in
question is generally credited to the Governor Ting Jih-ch’ang, who was
formerly intendant of circuit at Shanghai, with whom I was long associated
at that port, and who is an earnest and progressive man. He is now in charge
more particularly of affairs in Formosa, and I hear unofficially that he is
urging upon the government here the development of the resources of that
island. He is an especial friend and ally of the Viceroy at Tientsin.
[Inclosure.]
memorials of the governors of fuhkien and
chekiang.
[From the North China Daily News of
Shanghai, May 1, 1877.]
April 14.—The acting governor-general of
Min-cheh, and Ting Jih-ch’ang, governor of Fuhkien, jointly memorialize,
representing the urgent necessity that exists for a modification of the
rules in force respecting the custody of prisoners, in order to allow a
speedy dispensation of justice to take place. Observing that the civil
administration in the province of Fuhkien has lapsed into a condition of
vicious routine, one consequence of which is that unsentenced criminals
and other parties to judicial cases habitually languish in imprisonment,
frequently resulting in death, the memorialists point out that in order
to afford any actual relief it is necessary to undertake a radical and
searching inquiry into the causes of the evil complained of. They have
already, on two successive occasions, denounced a series of officials
guilty of acts of suppression in connection with reports of law
proceedings, and they have at the same time lavished exhortations upon
all their subordinates to discharge their duties with diligent
exactitude, to such an extent that they may almost say they have worn
away the points of their pens, and have brought blisters to their lips
in the effort. In the course of six months the cases of 532 prisoners,
old and new, have been wound up; but the misfortune is that in many
cases where the official returns show only a few prisoners in custody,
there are in reality some scores of persons in confinement. Thus, at
Amoy the subprefect had upward of eighty prisoners in jail, and reported
barely half a dozen. The subprefect at Shih Ma had upward of twenty
persons in confinement, and had gone on for some time reporting the
prison as untenanted; and these cases may be taken as typical of the
remainder. Not only is this what happens, as regards the magistrates
themselves, but prisoners are confined by the underlings without the
knowledge of the clerks and secretaries, while these again commit
persons to custody without the knowledge of their official employers.
Farmers and laborers or petty traders once cast into prison, their
entire household knows not a moment’s peace, and their release is not
effected until land and houses, nay, it may be, wife and children, are
sold and interest brought to bear on their behalf. The official sits at
his chess and wine, while the people are offering up supplications, to
which there is none [Page 106] to lend an
ear. Verily, the sound of their woes and anguish may well suffice to
evoke the visitation of drought and to arouse the wrath of Heaven. Since
the memoralists began their work of scrutiny, prisoners to the number of
1,246, borne on the lists sent in from the various districts, have been
released, but they have no doubt that thousands more are still confined,
of whom no report) is made, or who are surreptiously held in durance by
the official underlings. Most marvelous of all are such instances as
that of the magistrate of Show-ning, who, when stringently called upon
to explain why a prisoner named Li was still detained in custody more
than a year after he had been entitled to his release by act of grace,
replied that the prisoner was so fond of confinement that he did not
wish to be set at liberty; and of the magistrate of Tsiang-loh, who,
when called upon to report why a prisoner named Yang Mad been so long in
jail, replied that the man had been handed over by one incumbent of the
office to another during a long series of years, and that no particulars
of his case were on record! Other instances of the kind might further be
cited. There are at present in all the districts of the province some
290 odd criminals in prison, whose trials are not yet at an end, and 620
odd prisoners in addition to these. The prisoner who has been longest in
confinement is one Wông I-loh in the Fuh-ts’ing district, who has been
twenty years in jail; and other instances of imprisonment for twelve,
eleven, and ten years are recited.
The majority of these are individuals connected with charges of murder Or
robbery, with violence, but some have retracted confessions made in the
first instance, under torture, while others are simple accessories, or
even persons who declare themselves to be the victims of false
accusations. The courts, bound down by the letter of standing
regulations, do not venture to pronounce a final decision. And the
consequence is that prisoners who, if they had only been sentenced,
might go free, in conformity with the terms of the Imperial amnesties,
are detained in perpetual imprisonment, owing to some contradiction in
their depositions, first and last. In order to remedy the crying evils
thus exposed, it is prayed that the existing regulations may be modified
so as to enable a general jail delivery to be held, irrespective of the
limitations of time prescribed by the rules affecting trials, for all
cases dating from before the year 1875, exception being made in the case
of persons who have retracted confessions made in the face of direct
testimony, keepers of gambling-houses, promoters of litigation,
kidnappers to hold to ransom, and evil-doers of this class, who, if set
free with the rest, would be certain either to betake themselves to the
profession of brigandage, or to drift into connection with alien sects.
It is proposed that this class of prisoners may be kept in custody for a
fixed term of years by being chained to blocks of stone, but not locked
u-pin prisons. For all subsequent cases, it is proposed that the
regulations enjoining dispatch in procedure be duly enforced. An apology
is made for some delay in sending forward the present memorial, owing to
the departure for Formosa of the governor, Ting Jih-ch’ang, by whom it
has been drawn up.
Rescript: Let the boards concerned consider and report to us.
